Man arrested after seizing his wife from immigration guard

A CYPRIOT man was yesterday charged with trying to wrestle his pregnant Bulgarian wife from a Larnaca hospital bed, where she was being treated under police guard pending deportation.

On Thursday afternoon, Kyriacos Kadis allegedly pushed aside the woman police officer that had accompanied his wife Mapiya to hospital and then ran off with the Bulgarian.

A heavily pregnant Mapiya had arrived at Larnaca airport the day before but had been refused entry when immigration officers found her name on the stop list. On Thursday, she was taken to hospital from the airport detention centre after she complained of pains. That was, according to police, when her Cypriot husband made his move and the couple made their get-away.

But the mother-to-be and her husband were not on the run for long. They were arrested on Thursday evening.

Police said Kadis had yesterday been charged with obstructing the course of justice and then released. His pregnant wife, police said, was to be deported.

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